Botnets have plagued us for almost two decades now. Named by combining the words “robot” and “network,” a botnet is a network of computers infected with malicious software and remotely commanded and controlled by cybercriminals we call botmasters. Once infected, a computer joins a network of other infected computers awaiting orders from the threat actor in control—a kind of bot army always ready for the next nefarious mission the cybercriminal commander decides to launch. Botnets are very hard to detect, often evading anti-virus and other security tools altogether because the malware by which they’re facilitated grabs hold of the infected PC on a level deeper than the user and other applications.

Read this paper to discover whether your computer is leading a secret life of crime.

Download the full IBM Research report: The Inside Story on Botnets